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21 " The Everglades is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles coexist in the wild. "
― Conor Knighton , Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park
22 " At the park’s dedication ceremony, President Harry Truman promised the crowd that “in this park we shall preserve tarpon and trout, pompano, bear, deer, crocodiles and alligators—and rare birds of great beauty. We shall protect hundreds of all kinds of wildlife which might otherwise soon be extinct. "
23 " In the history of the Endangered Species Act, less than 2 percent of all species that have ever been listed have been delisted. "
24 " Quiet can be difficult to quantify—it's easier to think of loud in relative terms. A rock concert is louder than a string quartet; a jet engine is louder than a car engine; a couple have sex on the other side of the hotel wall last night was louder than my TV, so I made my TV louder. "
25 " Puzzled at first, the researchers eventually discovered the foxes were being killed by golden eagles. "
26 " Humans are by far the most destructive species, but we're also the only species that has ever worked together to ensure other forms of life don't go extinct. [...] Our ability to see a value in preserving life that extends beyond our immediate self-interest may be what makes us most human. "
27 " The etchings must have had some spiritual significance. Whatever afterlife the Fremont may have believed in, in that moment they came back to life for me. "
28 " Death Valley is the largest national park in the contiguous United States. Its massive boundary encompasses more than 3.3 million acres, stretching across the California/Nevada border. "
29 " I don’t know what, if anything, comes after this life. But I can tell you this: If there is a Heaven, I bet it looks a lot like Yosemite. "
30 " Behind the fence is the only known habitat of the Devils Hole pupfish, one of the rarest fish in the world. Against all odds, this one-inch-long, bright-blue fish has managed to eke out an existence in a puddle in the middle of the desert. "
31 " Never as well planned or resource-conscious as the trails planned by the park, social trails are created when hikers, frustrated with crowds on the main path, find their own way. Unfortunately, in the process, they trample vegetation and damage the fragile soil. Bryce Canyon, a park created by erosion over millions of years, is very vulnerable to the type of erosion caused by a summer of people walking where they shouldn’t. "
32 " There’s a well-known John Muir quote—“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. "
33 " Our ability to see a value in preserving life that extends beyond our immediate self-interest may be what makes us most human. "
34 " We need places such as Everglades National Park where we may be more keenly aware of our Creator’s infinitely varied, infinitely beautiful, and infinitely bountiful handiwork,” Truman said "
35 " The conservation of all that lives within the park, Truman argued, was necessary “for the conservation of the human spirit. "
36 " Humans are by far the planet’s most destructive species, but we’re also the only species that has ever worked together to ensure other forms of life don’t go extinct. The "
37 " John Muir quote—“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. "
38 " But there will be no anniversary, because today, instead of walking down an aisle, I will be hiking down a trail. "
39 " Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer give strength to body and soul alike,” Muir wrote in The Yosemite. "
40 " Yet this glorious valley might well be called a church, for every lover of the great Creator who comes within the broad overwhelming influences of the place fails not to worship as he never did before. "